This chat is about data acquisition. Data acquisition (DAQ) is a process by which a signal such as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, or sound is measured with a processing system. A processing system can be an entire computer or a standalone chip. The goal of a good DAQ system is to provide accuracy as quickly and be as cost effective as possible.

Kumar [Abhishek] is an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India, whose journey into the world of hardware began when he picked up the soldering iron at the age of 7. As a student under the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) program under BeagleBoard.org, [Abhishek] worked with BeagleBoard.org to realize a logic analyzer using the Programmable Real-Time units on the BeagleBone, called BeagleLogic. He has also served as a Summer of Code mentor for BeagleBoard.org.

Topics for this Hack Chat will include the direction BeagleBoard is going, the communities involved with BeagleBoard, and how to get the most out of those precious programmable real-time units. As always, we’re taking questions from the community, submit them here.

As an extra special bonus, this week we’re giving away some hardware. Digi-Key has offered up a few PocketBeagle boards. If you have an idea for a project, put it on the discussion sheet and we’ll pick the coolest project and send someone a PocketBeagle.

Every Friday, we gather ’round the hot air gun over on Hackaday.io, invite some cool people over, and get them to talk about what they do. This is the Hack Chat. It’s become a tradition, and already we’ve had a ton of awesome people walk through our doors.

This week, we’re inviting [Drew Fustini] and [Dan Sheadel] to talk about what OSH Park does, how they became the first place that comes to mind when you need a PCB. They’ll explain why the boards are purple, environmental regulations for PCB manufacturing in the US, shared projects and tips and tricks for creating the perfect board.

Every week Hackaday.io features an AMA of sorts. This is the Hack Chat, a chatroom where we sit down with the best in the business to talk about manufacturing techniques, engineering, and how to build the best hardware around. Over the last few months, we’ve hosted a few hardware celebrities, from [Sprite_TM] talking about the ESP32,…